Chapter 01
Well here I am. The last thing I remember is going to bed. Now, I think I'm dead. This appears to be the astral plane. It reminds me of the experiments I conducted when I was young. When I was a child I had memories, I could not explain. When I got older, I decided to research it and experiment with astral projection and lucid dreaming. I managed to succeed in both though I found astral projection jarring.
After I succeeded in these things, I decided to do more research to understand it and figure out why more people didn't seem to think they were real. Turns out more people did believe it was real and understood it. It was in fact quite well documented. The Tibetan branch of Buddhism even wrote an entire book based on it called the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Now here I am dead. It happens to everyone eventually. The thing about life, no one gets out of it alive. So there's no reason to panic and let yourself be led around. Why not seize my own fate and decide my future for myself.
Well, first things first I'm here on the astral plane and I have to get a grip of myself can't let myself succumb to the projections of the collective consciousness of humanity through its manifestations of various religious figures. Something anyone studying astral projection has to come to grips with.
To move around in this state all you have to do is mentally hold an image of a location in your mind and you will go there near instantly. It's kind of like blinking with a rush of movement. That's what I found disconcerting about astral projection. It's stated that someone in this state can't interact easily with the physical environment. However, their movements aren't limited by space or even time.
While I could attempt Enlightenment and letting go of worldly concerns. Achieve a higher state of being this we have massive fictional writing the possibilities of it. They all seem incredibly boring to me. A bunch of voyers on a higher plane of existence, not interfering with anything. Just sitting up there, contemplating their navel. Yeah, that's not for me. I'm not gonna do that.
Okay, everything seems to be working the way it's supposed to. Time for a test.
How do you test whether or not you can move between dimensions into other universes? Like in some cases of astral projection, it's thought to be possible and there are stories of it. However, I've never attempted it before.
I test this by using my imagination to visualize my home. Not as my home, but as it would be, if my grandfather had decided to build his house here instead of where he built it one street over.
It worked. Just one change of decision by 1 man in the history of his life, spawning a new universe that I am now standing in.
Now to get a new life, I can choose to be reborn or do a walk in of someone who just recently died. As morbid as that might sound. It does give me the opportunity of their memories. What I need is to pick somebody living in a dangerous enough environment that they would probably die in many universes, preferably peacefully. Walkins don't work when the body is suffering physical trauma. You need a body that is, technically still alive, even with nobody home. Or a body that recently died with the soul, leaving it without any physical damage, something you can keep alive for a few moments with nothing but force of will essentially you being inside of it. Refusing to die for as long as possible. This is usually affixation, hypothermia or recently drowned. Pretty much if CPR or the heimlich maneuver could kick you back into life. A walkin can do much the same.
I know exactly who I want and when I want them.
Now comes the hard part. Using my knowledge and my imagination to visualize the place I want as an actual physical place. Most people can't do this. Their imagination's not good enough for it. Those who can usually use AI to help them make videos of it and post it on YouTube.
I'm not going to try specifics, just yet, I'm going to try and get to the right multiverse in the vast omniverse first.
I'm going to 2138 Tokyo Japan. In the future version of earth that had YGGDRASIL the game.
I focus in on 2138, YGGDRASIL, and Satoru Suzuki. The man who becomes Momon, Ainz Ooal Gown the Overlord ruler of Nazarick.
The only moment I have to go on is what's depicted in the anime and manga, where he plugs in to the game for the final time. So that's what I have to key in on.
It took more than a few attempts, but eventually I made it, just in time to watch him die. I have no intention of going into his body right now. It would be pointless to do so. What I need right now is to stick around and follow people to gather information. I have no intention of living his life for 14 years in a dead end job as a middle management bureaucrat. I worked myself to death once. I'm not going to do it again. Thank you very much.
Instead, I want to gather information on him his earlier life. Also this world, he started in there are too many questions about it, such as how a child in elementary school managed to survive after coming downstairs 1 day. Just in time to see his mother die in a world where orphans dead bodies are commonly found on the side of the street. Yet, he was able to survive as not an orphan. Get an apartment, a job and continue somehow.
I decided I'm going to do some investigating. There's probably a host of information about him that he himself does not know about.
Turns out I was right to be suspicious. His mother, as it turns out, used to be the secretary of the major company in control of the largest domes in Japan. She was also the mistress of the man who owned the company. When the man's wife found out, she made him fire her and kick her out of the dome. None of them knew that she was pregnant at the time. The man incorporated his estate into a trust under the control of a major banking company. Which caused his wife to go ballistic and attempt to kill him. As a result, they both wound up dying in the conflict.
The banking conglomerate was under an obligation to find the air to the trust. However, they were not under any obligation to inform anyone about their findings. A few members on the board of directors for the company knew that there was a possibility that the owner had an heir and slipped the banking company, a hefty amount of money to keep their mouth shut.
This is a common trope in many Japanese stories, so I had my suspicions that the author would do something like that. If I was looking for this individual in this universe, I would find that trope in a reality with it.
Now I have to move to 2124 to a specific universe in this same multiverse. Where it's 14 years before the end of YGGDRASIL. The game ran for 12 years and I'll need at least 2 years to get everything in order.
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Here I am same rundown apartment. Same Satoru Suzuki different universe. In this universe, everything's the same except he didn't live long enough to play YGGDRASIL. In this universe, his apartment had a leak and he died in his sleep.
I've seen death before. I've experienced it myself. However, I've never felt so completely powerless to do anything. In this state I have the ability to travel at the speed of thought anywhere in any universe in the blinking of an eye and yet, I can't physically touch anything I can't be heard all I can do is witness.
It looks like he's having a pleasant dream. I think he's dreaming about his mother. I see his soul slipping out of his body. When his soul is almost out, I start moving in. Taking his place as he slips out.
My eyes snap open, I reach with my left hand for the mask on the dresser next to the futon scrambling to put it on. I press the button on the side of the mask. Letting oxygen flow in pushing the bad air out. Coughing like a lifetime smoker after a marathon I attempted to catch my breath shaking.
I take my time catching my breath and sifting through the memories of my new life. This is a lot to take in. After I regain myself, I start looking for the patch kit to fix the apartment's leak.
It took an hour to fix the problem with the environmental systems in my apartment. Turns out the problem was rats had chewed through a wire in the motor of the rebreather system. A world of acid rain, poisonous air and rats are still a problem?
It took another hour for the environmental system to clean the toxins out of the apartment. I took the time to sit there and plan what I'm going to be doing in the next few days.
I can't just run up and scream here I am give me a D.N.A. test I'm the heir. That's a good way to get myself killed. Even in the world I came from, that would be a good way to get myself killed. Contacting the authorities would be a waste of time. It would just bog everything down in red tape and litigation. What I need is to plan a strategy and initiate a distraction.
First thing I need to do is keep my job. Next thing I need to do is take out a large enough loan to hire some private investigators in the dome. I already know the names of the 2 individuals paying the hush money to keep me from being discovered. What I need is to have evidence dug up get the dirt. I already know Senna Ozaka and Saratobie Ikuma are going to find themselves at odds with everyone around them if I have anything to say about it. After all the best way for me to move unnoticed is to make sure their house is divided so I can conquer later.